Write Access

Write Access

Linux Magazine in India

A friend picked up an issue of Linux Magazine in the US and I loved it. Here in India, Linux Magazine is not readily available, and shipping costs too much. Will you guys consider establishing a center for your magazine here in India? I am pretty sure your magazine would be blockbuster. India has lots of Linux users. If you guys could locally distribute the magazines in India, it really would be great.

Shashwat

LM

Thanks for the feedback. We're glad to hear you liked the magazine. We deliver to many parts of the world, but the presence of Linux Magazine at your local newsstand might depend on external factors such as shipping costs and the wholesale magazine distribution system in your country. If you have trouble finding Linux Magazine in your area, you might consider signing up for a digital subscription. Digital subscribers can download a PDF version of Linux Magazine from anywhere in the world. For more on Linux Magazine digital subscriptions see:

http://www.linux-magazine.com/digisub

Patents

What's the big problem with patents on algorithms?

If I devise a new mechanism that's expressed in gears and levers, that, apparently, is fine. If it works using interlocking molecules, that's fine too. But a computer algorithm cannot be patented in the UK. You stand a better chance in the EU or the US, but the UK patent office won't look at it unless it has a physical manifestation of some sort. Why is that? What, in principle, is the difference?

I confess that I do have an ax to grind here. My company has developed a novel algorithm for solving certain important classes of simultaneous linear equations.

It took a huge amount of (privately funded) work to develop, and I really don't see why we should give it away. If it were a drug or an electronic device, we would be looking to build a successful tax-paying business around it.

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself being lectured on software patents by an academic Linux enthusiast who, it transpired, had himself filed patents on the (taxpayer-funded) work he'd done at University.

Related content

The U.S. is known for its patent friendliness. But a Supreme Court decision in 2008 overturned a patent application by Bernard L. Bilski and Rand A. Warsaw for a risk mitigation process. Now Red Hat is using the so-called Bilski case in support of software non-patentability.

How many patents are enough? Or perhaps more importantly, how many patents can be squeezed from one body of knowledge when you're basically doing what everyone else is doing? These questions are fresh in mind as I read the report at eWeek stating that IBM set a new record by receiving 7,534 patents in 2014, the 22nd year in a row that IBM has topped the list for most patents.